 Poster: A snowHead
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After a few trips I'm now quite a confident skier and am happy on reds and blacks.
Problem is that I am self taught and my technique is definitely "brute force". Years of cycling has given me strong legs and I feel that I am using far too much force to control my turns. Also, I don't think I look good on skis as a few photos of this holiday atest.
So, how would I get best value from an instructor to improve my technique and style? Is this the sort of thing they do?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Do an hour or two lesson - then practice the drills and techniques given. Instructors are great at spotting things like you are describing 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Private lessons.
Group lessons are for skiers who need help to move to more challenging terrain/conditions. For technique critique, you need the undivided attention of your instructor, and helps tailored specifically to YOU.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I'm sure I join easiski in cringing whenever anyone uses the word "style" in the context of skiing..... 
Me: What would you like to get out of the lesson today?
Client: I'd like to improve my style on blacks.
Me: OK. Lets go shopping for a 1 piece Prada suit, maybe we can accessorise it with a diamond broach, a fashionable fur headband and maybe some Gucci bling?
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| Quote: |
I'm sure I join easiski in cringing whenever anyone uses the word "style" in the context of skiing
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veeeight, don't be such a spoil sport. Sitting on chairlifts would be so boring if you couldn't play "spot the stylist", looking for the guys (they're almost always guys, it seems) who reckon they are demonstrating great "style", feet close together, arms windmilling around in a pointless sort of way... Someone with more talent for it than I should start a "spot the stylist" thread, with movie evidence.
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DaveB, Technique had nothing to do with style - it's to do with efficiency. You should deffo not be using strength at all to turn, and the suggestion of private lessons is the best in your situation. However you do need to do the homework that the instructor gives you, and if they don't give you any, you should ask for it! You can only improve by practising the right things. Exercises are not vey interesting but they do work!
veeeight, Agreed but pam w, also agreed. ssh, good suggestion!! 
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Style..?? Watch a very good skier who has it. It is aligned with economy of movement and efficiency, IMV.
And you need a few basics before you can polish off the rough edges. Also, you need to be relaxed and that may be the most important thing
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Thanks for the replies. I have no ambition to be a poser, I am probably mixing the word style with efficiency.
ssh - if only, if only!!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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brian
brian
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You know it makes sense.
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rob@rar, what he thought/thinks about BASI is probably best left unsaid 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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brian
brian
Guest
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| rob@rar wrote: |
easiski It's a shame that more skiers today don't put into practice what Ali Ross was saying back then. Les Arcs has a more than average proportion of 'old style' skiers with their knees bolted together and incredible rotating shoulders! |
Rob, there was the highest proportion I've ever seen of people with locked knees/ankles and rotating upper bodies in Kaprun/Zell last week. What was worrying was overhearing Austrian ski instructors teaching people to do this!
What was even more worrying, on the style front, was that there were young-ish (i.e. under 30 years old) snowboarders there wearing fluorescent one-piece suits!
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Talking of one-pieces, the best one we've ever seen was a late teen walking down LDA high street in Nov in a red camouflage Andy Pandy suit with crotch (designed to be at) knee level. And he thought he looked so cool!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I think that for good 'style' need not necessarily mean good technique - I've seen several sports where its possible to look good (dress wise), and be able to do the sport the sport well enough to conceal to most people a lack of good technique. I believe that good technique is the key to technically performing a sport technically with style & panache and this is the reason why I always try to do things the way I am shown. If you can't technically do a sport well - you will never be able to do it truely with 'style'.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I truly truly hate that word. It has no place in skiing. Apart from dress sense.
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One definition of "style" is "a particular way of doing something." I tend to think of "style" in skiing as affected. In other words, a skier tries to pose in a certain way to look like a picture they've seen and the effect is that they do not ski, but rather move from static pose to static pose.
The key in skiing is to move in balance to balance, using the skis as tools to do the "work" necessary to use the forces to accomplish your planned line. DaveB, where do you live? Where do you ski?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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"style" implies that it's a method of skiing that someone has decided would look good. this has no place in the modern ski world except for, as PamW says, keeping you amused on the lifts. Doing something with style is completely diferent!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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ssh live in Swindon
Ski in the Alps, Les Arcs/Corcheval/Morzine
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| Quote: |
| What was even more worrying, on the style front, was that there were young-ish (i.e. under 30 years old) snowboarders there wearing fluorescent one-piece suits! |
But the entire point of yoof "style" is to upset older people. If those guys thought that you thought that they looked cool, they'd have failed. Similarly the knee level crotches. We think they look ridiculous. It is a "style" which older people are simply never going to wear. That's the entire point.
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You know it makes sense.
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One pieces (baagy) and faux one pieces are definitely "in" now
To echo ssh and easiski, you don't see Johnny Wilkinson on the pitch and comment on his "style", nor do you make style remarks about Roger Federer's performance on the court. Or say that Wayne Rooney conducts his ball control with such style.
In a closed skill sport (eg; Diving, Gymnastics) there *are* points awarded for style, but in an open skilled sport such as skiing, all we are doing is using our equipment and joints to stay in good balance, and arranging our joints to best manage the forces generated in skiing.
In short, skiing is all about biomechanics and physics.
Possibly dress sense too.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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This should really be on the equipment thread, but I can't resist posting it here:
Is this good style?
http://www.snowmediazone.com/the_zone/uploads/647/New_suit.jpg
Just treated myself from TX MAXX - its Trespass, Radium gear (not the best make, but it reckons its waterproof and breathable). They were on the sale rail and I matched the two pieces - at £69 complete I don't reckon it was a bad buy. My pressie to myself for losing weight.
The future's bright - the future's orange!
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Poster: A snowHead
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Megamum,
don't ask me - I only wear black. sounds like a good buy though
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| veeeight wrote: |
In a closed skill sport (eg; Diving, Gymnastics) there *are* points awarded for style, but in an open skilled sport such as skiing, all we are doing is using our equipment and joints to stay in good balance, and arranging our joints to best manage the forces generated in skiing.
In short, skiing is all about biomechanics and physics.
Possibly dress sense too. |
Are you not defining skiing too narrowly - surely style points (however called) are a feature of moguls, freeskiing, park and pipe, aerials and ski jumping which are all competive disciplines?
Although I will concede that aerials are just gymnastics by another name and ski jumping is really a birdman competition for underweight mental northern europeans  .
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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There is a design principle that can be applied to all technical sports: 'form follows function'.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Megamum, yes yes yes! Orange is the new black!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Style = Orange
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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spyderjon, Well, that just hits the nail on the head doesn't it a whole page of postings and finally we decide that
Style = Orange
A bit like the meaning of life being equal to 42
Let's hope it will still be in next year!
Now the next big question is shall I wear them when I get to MK in the summer? I guess I'll need my normal warm skiing gear (salopettes, jacket, gloves, and I think helmet if it could be busy) if I'm skiing in a freezer?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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FAQ
